


A Sunday Drive

by Darkhymns



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cars, Gen, Humor, Mild Language, Racing, bad references to 90s songs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 12:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20008096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhymns/pseuds/Darkhymns
Summary: Lloyd and Colette go out for ice cream! How this turns into a car race is anyone's guess.





	A Sunday Drive

**Author's Note:**

> This is several years old but I still think it's a bit funny. Maybe.

“Your dad finally got you a car?” Lloyd looked at the hatchback parked in the driveway. The back bumper was a little scuffed, showing its clearly used history, but Colette was beaming at it like she had gotten a shiny convertible for her birthday.

“Yeah! Now we can go where we want!” She already had the keys in her hand, clicking the unlock function.

Lloyd suddenly got the best idea in the world. “Let’s go to Dairy Queen!” He practically jumped to the passenger side. “Right now!”

“Okay!” She gently opened her car door, sliding inside. “We can go everyday now if we want!”

“Seriously?!” This was almost too much for Lloyd to handle. He nearly put the keys into the ignition himself. “Come on, let’s go!”

Colette didn’t rush through it still, despite Lloyd’s insistence. She adjusted her seat, her rearview mirrors, and looked carefully behind her as she backed out into the street. Lloyd let her handle all the driving activities, while he just messed with the radio and started thinking out loud about what toppings he was going to get for his chocolate caramel sundae.

“I think lots of sprinkles would be good,” Colette added. She kept her eyes on the road, keeping well within the speed limit, and a safe distance from other cars. “I’m really glad I got my license. I thought I’d never be able to!”

“Hey, I saw you. You practically got a perfect score on that test. Raine would have to be crazy to not pass you.”

She smiled, giving him a quick glance before turning back to the road. “I hope you get your license soon, too.”

“Ehh, we’ll see about that,” Lloyd waved it off. He hadn’t even had the chance to do the road test. Because he’d failed the written test portion twice so far. He didn’t think he’d do good on the road test even if he did pass the written exam. Whenever Dirk gave him driving lessons, his father would always start yelling if he made the slightest error, making the thought of him getting behind the wheel fill his head with anxiety.

He lowered his own seat back, crossing his arms behind his head as he relaxed. “I think it’s just good that one of us can drive. Hey, maybe we can go to the beach later?”

“Yeah, that sounds fun!” Colette agreed. “I can’t wait to go.”

This was a pretty sweet deal that Lloyd had. Colette gently hummed as she drove down the streets, the roads empty for the most part. She didn’t go too fast or too slow, and Lloyd was able to just daydream as the shops passed them by. He thought he could get used to this. Colette didn’t seem to mind driving him around.

Not even a minute later though, both heard the most obnoxious music playing from behind them. Colette blinked, looking at the side mirror to see who was there, and Lloyd instantly sat up, rolling away the kinks in his neck. A car engine revved noisily, quickly catching up to them.

Lloyd recognized the voice singing along to the music and groaned.

_“If you wanna be my lover! You gotta get with my friends!”_

“Is… is that Zelos?” Colette asked innocently. They’d seen the guy at school, always dressed in really well-made jackets, arms draped around a different girl’s shoulders each time they saw him.

“Yeah.” Lloyd’s ears were already hurting. “Maybe we should roll up the windows.”

Instantly, an expensive-looking sports car with the sunroof pulled down, moved near them. It was a garish red, (nice color, though) the sunlight reflecting off its polished surface to blind the eyes. Zelos drove a little erratically, laughing all the while as someone in the passenger seat was trying to yell over the ungodly volume of the car’s music.

“Oh!” Colette pointed to the car. “It’s Sheena.”

Lloyd was confused. “Why would she drive with him?”

That wasn’t a question he would get answered anytime soon, especially with how furious the girl was. Her voice traveled across the roads, succeeding in just barely being heard. “The hell, Zelos! Can you drive a little slower for once?”

“Shush! Here comes the best part! _Make it_ ….something something… _Friendship never ends!”_

Zelos’ long red hair billowed out behind him as he sped up his car, sunglasses catching the glare of the sun. Sheena was raving by this point. “Goddamn it! At least turn the music down!”

Lloyd wasn’t sure how someone like Zelos got his license, but then he supposed anything is possible when you were rich.

“Do you think he’d want to go get ice cream with us?” Colette asked him politely.

With Colette, Lloyd was always honest. “I don’t know if I really wanna deal with him today.”

Just as Colette was about to make a right turn, she immediately had to brake. Lloyd caught himself on the dashboard from the movement, his seatbelt still pinning him in place. He looked up just in time to see that same red car drive in from of them in their lane and make that same right turn. Colette’s car stayed still in the road, the engine still gently humming.

“Geez! That stupid jerk didn’t even signal.” Lloyd settled back, irritated. “We need to try to not drive when he’s out.”

What was weird though was that he heard no remark at all from Colette. He turned to his left. “Hey, Colette? You okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

He couldn’t see her eyes well enough. She was still staring straight ahead at the road, her hands gripped on the steering wheel in their correct positions. For a moment, Lloyd was sure she was going to cry because of what happened.

Before he could reach out a hand to comfort her, she stepped on the gas violently, sending their car screeching on the pavement as sped towards Zelos.

“C-Colette! Wait, what are you-?”

Zelos and Sheena were at a stop light with no other cars around. The music had been turned way down by this point, possibly due to Sheena’s interference. She was still yelling at the rich kid that she had the misfortune to bum a ride from.

“This is seriously the last time I’m ever driving with you! The fuck is wrong with you?”

“Hey, easy on the language! That can’t be good for your complexion or- oh, hey there, angel!” Zelos waved at Colette as she stopped next to him, braking harshly. “What’s up?”

“Zelos.” Colette said in a calm tone, unsmiling. “You cut me off.”

The guy blinked stupidly. “Huh? Oh, well my hunny here is getting real hungry though for some Dairy Queen, so I had to rush. You know her and her sweet tooth.”

“Hunny?!” Sheena yelled. “Hunny, my ass!”

“Zelos,” Colette called out again. Her voice took on a different tone, scaring Lloyd a little. “What you did wasn’t very nice!”

“Hey, I’ll make it up to you later. How about a date next Friday?” Zelos grinned, angling his shades down to give a sly wink.

At that point, Lloyd noticed Colette reach for the car's lever, putting it at a different spot. Wait, this was a stick shift?! How had he not noticed that before?

“Uh, Colette-”

“Ohhh, I get it!” Zelos was laughing again, revving up his car’s engines in the most annoying way possible. “Little angel wants to race, huh?”

Lloyd’s mind went numb for a second. “Wait, WHAT?!”

“Come on, Colette. Bet you can’t beat me there!” And once the red light was gone, Zelos instantly sped away, screeching past the intersection with an equally screeching Sheena.

Colette followed him right after.

Lloyd was sure he was going to have a heart attack any second now.

“Colette!” He tried to reason, too afraid to even sit forward. They were in a more recreational part of town for now, but soon they would get to the shopping district, where more cars and people were around. “Slow down!”

She didn’t seem to hear him. In fact, she pressed down on the accelerator more, her speed getting dangerously close to the triple digits. Her car was right next to Zelos, who was laughing all the way as they sped down to the corner where Dairy Queen was. Lloyd risked a quick glance out Colette’s side of the window, and could see that Sheena wasn’t enjoying this much either.

They shot past another intersection and were now officially in ‘more population’ territory. How were there no cops around?!

“Gonna win!” Zelos’ voice traveled to them as he moved ahead, the Doppler effect making his voice sound more distorted than usual.

Colette, in response, accelerated harder. She suddenly shot past Zelos, squeezed her car into the one lane parking lot and instantly braked when she reached a parking spot.

Lloyd felt like he was gonna hurl.

Immediately, he got out of the car, stumbling as he did so and went down on his knees, heaving out air. He heard Zelos’ car pull up next to him, and then a really hard smacking sound, followed by the guy’s cries of pain.

“Ow! Sheena, stop that!”

“You _idiot!_ You could’ve gotten me killed!” Lloyd looked up barely, just able to see Sheena swing her heavy sports bag at Zelos’ back, chasing him out of his car and onto the sidewalk.

“Gah! Stop! You’re definitely not getting laid after this.”

“Are you fucking _**kidding**_ me?!” Followed by another whack.

After that, Lloyd decided to look back at the sidewalk underneath his hands, taking deep, choking breaths. They had gone so fast, he was sure he saw his life flash before his eyes. There… there had been so many detentions…

“Lloyd?” A quiet, apologetic voice was above him. He felt a hand press against his back, moving around in small circles. He turned to the side to find Colette there, smiling in embarrassment. “Do you… still want some ice cream?”

For his answer, Lloyd turned away and threw up his breakfast on the sidewalk.


End file.
